After months of construction and rerouted paths to the Bryan Center, students will find a completed West Campus Plaza when they return in the fall, Larry Moneta, vice president for student affairs, confirmed Sunday.
The plaza is still within budget and will be completed by Aug. 14, as scheduled, Moneta said. Student leaders are now working with members of the administration in order to plan a month-long series of events to commemorate the plaza's opening.
The primary construction for the 40,000-square-foot student plaza began in August 2005 with the demolition of the former Bryan Center walkway. Since then, crews have concluded structural work and have now begun the final stages of plaza construction.
Moneta said construction crews are currently working on the periphery of the space, which will ultimately connect the Bryan Center, the West Union Building and Page Auditorium.
"The wooden decking is nearly finished alongside the Great Hall and soon work will begin on laying the finishing materials, [such as] tile, stone and pavers," Moneta wrote in an e-mail.
In mid-May, construction will begin on the removal of the Bryan Center walls facing the plaza. Glass panels are being put in place of the walls in order to modernize the structure, administrators said.
"Soon after, doorways will be punched into the Great Hall and at the end of the new decking, into the Flowers Building, to provide access from the Chapel Quad," Moneta added. Workers have planted trees, and preparations have begun for the shrubs that will border Page.
Touted by administrators as a new central gathering place on campus, the plaza will feature programming from different student groups. With two performance platforms and an elaborate lighting system, the space was designed specifically to facilitate student events.
Moneta noted that the Duke University Union, in particular, will take charge of the plaza's first 30 days.
"The Union, along with other campus organizations, has put together a calendar of events that starts when the plaza opens in August and ends on the last day of September," junior Alex Apple, president of the Union, wrote in an e-mail.
On the first day of classes, a large event will be held to begin a "kickoff month" celebrating the plaza's opening, he said. The month-long celebration will also have a closing weekend, coinciding with annual events such as Oktoberfest and Homecoming.
"The main goal is to get every event that happens on campus to be incorporated in the plaza kickoff month," Apple said. "This includes academic departments, cultural groups, orientation, performance groups, University departments and events, and any other student groups out there."
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